Bank Holiday Runday

It's a Bank Holiday weekend which means we have an extra day to enjoy, for some this means DIY, visiting family, a Netflix marathon, laying in bed all day, a BBQ or in my case a long weekend of running.

My Saturday morning parkrun plans had been disrupted, I'd hoped to go to Hatfield Forest and better my 27 minute course time but forgotten that I had booked a haircut that morning so had to postpone my run until later in the day. It was a beautifully sunny afternoon when I remembered the post I had seen earlier on the Rayne Booking Hall Cafe Facebook page advertising their new gelato ice creams. That's when I hatched the perfect plan, I suggested to Paul that we do our 5 km along the Flitch Way and end up back at the cafe for ice cream, perfect! Paul was aiming to do a 23 minute 5k time so I agreed I'd meet him back at the station where we'd get our ice cream. I spent the whole 5k thinking about ice cream, what flavour I'd have (I was dreaming of salted caramel) and how cooling it would be. I'd convinced myself that it would be the perfect running recovery food, a little salt to replenish the electrolytes lost through sweat and a good carbohydrate to protein ratio from the sugar and diary content. The run went pretty quick whilst my mind was occupied obsessing about my post run reward. My body wasn't capable of being pushed too hard so it was a comfortable 5k completed in 27:41. Back at the station cafe we queued for our ice cream only to discover that the ice cream menu was not starting until Monday (I obviously just read the word ice cream and stopped at that!) and they didn't even have the ice cream in stock yet! The standard ice cream offerings were just not the same so we left disappointed and empty handed.

Standard post run practice these days, trainers off, compression socks on!

Sunday is usually a long run, I woke up feeling a little dehydrated from the beer and Indian food from the night before. I got out of bed and realised that the self massage I had done on my uber tight calf muscles the night before had made very little difference, if not they felt tighter and with every step I took I felt pain in my shins. It was going to take me some while to have breakfast and stretch and roll my calves until they would be ready to take the strain of a long run. Paul went off regardless and I decided to put my run off until later on pending the state of my legs. When I eventually got out of bed and looked out the window it was pouring with rain and I was quite grateful for having the excuse not to run! The last couple of days I have experienced some unpleasant pain radiating from the bottom of my knees down my shins, there is also a very tender spot on the inside of my shin where the muscle feels knotted. I am fairly certain that it is shin splints (or Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome to give it its proper name), it's been building up for a few weeks now and worsens after running. I had got myself some calf compression sleeves having read it helps prevent shin splints but having used them for my last few runs I feared I was fighting a losing battle.

A day of procrastination seemed to pass with very little being accomplished. The weather cleared up in the afternoon and I decided I ought to at least attempt a run. I had been hoping to cover around 10 miles but really couldn't find the motivation to go out and spend a lonely 2 hours running and feared that I cut my run short as soon as felt any pain. Luckily my friend Chris was in a similar predicament having been put off by the earlier rain so we arranged to run together. I drove to Stansted to meet Chris, as I set off the sun was beaming brightly in the sky, however as I approached Stansted the sky turned from blue to grey and I drove through monsoon like conditions with the car being buffeted by the wind and rain! I emerged the other side of the rain and aside there being rivers running down the roads it was bright and sunny once more. I had packed my rain jacket in my hydration vest as I thought the chances to it staying dry were slim, I thought bringing sunglasses with me may be too optimistic! Chris had a number of route options which would suit us both, his plan said 12 miles and I was happy to run the little extra if I could. It was really nice running in mostly unfamiliar surroundings (I recognised a little from the 2014 Stansted 10k) and it provided a welcome distraction from thinking about the shin pain which made itself known with every step I took. The run was mostly on quiet rural roads surrounded by countryside, it was a really scenic route through Stansted, Manuden, Ugley and Elsenham. There were quite a number of hills on the route, some gradual climbs that came and went fairly unnoticed but there was one particular hill (it could have been a mountain) around mile 3 which was particularly nasty. Chris had pre-warned me about it and we agreed that during the accent that it was ok that we stopped talking and conserved our oxygen! A lot of the run was fairly open with little shelter from the afternoon sun that was generating a reasonable amount of heat (19°c). It's said that running with friends helps the run pass quicker and I'd usually say that was true but it seemed we were both struggling with a few niggling injuries. It felt like we had been running forever at the 5 mile mark and knew I had to double my efforts to get anywhere near the desired distance. We covered 11 miles in total taking 1:50 which was a reasonable effort, looking at our split time we were consistent but slower on the second half of the run which would probably explain why we didn't squeeze out one last mile.

After a glass of water and a chat with Chris I decided to head home before I started to seize up and getting out of the car the other end resembled the evolution of (wo)man! I was pleased that I had made the effort to run but on the journey home I came over feeling quite peculiar, cold and nauseous. I put it down to the fact that I was wearing a long sleeve top which was sodden with cold sweat and it had done more than an effective job of cooling my body temperature disturbing my equilibrium. To my surprise I discovered some interesting watch and compression sleeve tan lines in the shower, it just goes to show that the sun was strong when it was out.

With no work the following day I had suggested that I cooked something from scratch for dinner that we ordinarily wouldn't have time to prepare. From my recipe vault I decided to cook a leek and lentil lasagne, something of a favourite handed down to me from my Mum. It's deliciously hearty and filling, with leek, brown lentils, carrot, tomato and bechamel sauce layered between lasagne sheets with a cheese and seed topping. It was gone 6 pm by the time I had got home from my run, Paul true to form was hungry and couldn't wait for me to get home and finish my faff before preparing the dinner so had taken it upon himself to get dinner ready for my return. I felt guilty that my day of procrastination had meant that I wasn't around to cook the dinner but kudos to him though, it's quite an involved recipe and he had prepared and cooked it beautifully (and dare I say may be even better than I could have done myself!).

Paul's delicious leek and lentil lasagne

Monday running club was a morning rather than an evening session due to the bank holiday so Paul and I thought it would be a great way to start the day. The first few steps I took in the morning were exceedingly painful and the previous two days of running had taken its toll on my shins and calf muscles. I stubbornly insisted that I would still be ok to run and slathered myself in Voltarol gel hoping it may provide some temporary pain relief. The session was fairly relaxed and free flowing, after the initial warm up and some running drills the sessions started running on the green doing a few intervals. I found myself really struggling just with running over a short distance and I very nearly decided to drop out. I probably should have done in hindsight but persevered on for the rest of the session which involved pyramids of 30/40/50/40/30 reps and 5 minutes jogging a circuit on the grass with a hill thrown in. The last 5 minutes was probably the most comfortable I'd been the whole session, I think the pain was still there but it either eased being on grass or I had just got to the point where I'd blocked it from my mind! It was nice to see so many people from the group out enjoying bank holiday runday!

Michelle's Running Group out in force

Later that morning we took advantage of the morning yoga class at the gym followed by a relax in the sauna and steam room. We usually only attend yoga on a Friday night as we're both at work during the day. It was nice to have an active recovery after a busy weekend of running and to stretch out tired and tight muscles. Yoga has shown me just how poor my flexibility is in particular my hamstrings, it's something I have learnt to embrace as part of my run routine and I am hoping will make me a stronger runner.

In hindsight running on Monday was probably a mistake, I had already aggravated my shin pain further and it looks like to the point where I may have to take some forced rest to still be in with a chance of attempting the marathon. With just 2 weeks remaining, I needed to make a decision as to whether I would be running or deferring my entry to another event. I immediately decided one thing was certain and that was I needed some time off running to try and allow the pain to subside. I would have preferred to make this decision after an assessment from the physio but I was going to have to wait a week for the next available appointment. For now I'll just take care of the injury as best as I can and hope for the best!